Windows Phone 8 will reportedly get 1080P support later this year

In perhaps not a surprising move, Microsoft is expected to add 1080P resolution support for Windows Phone 8 displays later this year with the General Distribution Release (GDR3) software release to OEMs. Currently, Windows Phone can only support up to 768 and 720 resolutions, which while a marked improvement over its predecessor is still far behind Android.

The resolution will reportedly only be for displays 5 inches and greater, allowing OEMs to expand their Windows Phone offerings into the new “phablet” designs like the Samsung Galaxy Note I, II. That’s also presumably done because supply constraints on manufacturing will also limit initial 1080P displays to certain sizes, though that will change in the future.

HTC was supposed to release a ‘Zenith’ Windows Phone with a 4.7” display but has cancelled that phone, at least for now, due to it being lower resolution than its popular selling Android devices. Pressure from Microsoft’s OEM partners may have played a role in the Windows Phone team pushing this feature to the GDR3 release, expected within the coming months.

No word on what this will mean in the long term for developers, who will now have to start to think about new graphics for their apps and games later in 2013.

The kernel can handle many cores, but the real thing is to build drivers for it, that Microsoft hasn't done.
They only support 2 SoC's for Windows Phone 8 and need to bring new SoC's with new udpate. Nothign the OEM's can do.

Hmm, i doubt this 5 inch thing because adroids with 1080p are also 4.7 or something around that.
Now we need more customization, different Tile colors etc, different backgrounds. i understand that the Tiles and b/w Backgrounds are a design thing but it could attract more people, just add the option.

I saw a prototype with a background (can't find the link) what they did was remove the boarders around the screen and made the tiles a little smaller and have bigger dividers between them. Also the tiles were a little transparent so you could make out the image behind them.

Surprised to see Microsoft putting yet another restriction - 1080p on 5" plus devices only? Why do they always find a way to tie OEMs hands? A 4.7" zenith or a Lumia variant with 1080p display would be a great phone. Just can't understand the way MS thinks sometimes.

Maybe because nobody can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a sub 5" display, and MS wants to force the use of large enough batteries?
1080p offers absolutely no benefits on a sub 5" display (beyond spec pissing and marketability to low information geeks). It's actually detrimental, as it incures much lower frame rates in games, requires more battery power to drive the GPU and it makes app development more expensive.
Even at 5" 1080p is still overkill, and just like the 13MP smartphone camera (using pixels at 1.1 micron) ends up making some aspects of the device worse.

There is a difference between being able to tell on close inspection and being being able to tell in daily use. With enough squinting I can tell too, but the difference is entirely unspectacular. I don't notice any worthwhile difference, even while browsing high contrast web sites.

Having way more PPI than the human eye can easily make use of isn't forward looking so much as it's piss contest looking (yes, "peepee eye"). It's not anywhere close to practically useful and it's detrimental to battery life, making it the opposite of useful.

That still doesn't take the fact that they are late to the game.
They need to be part of the gamer if they wanna win it. I think we have been proven more than right that the strickt hardware restrictions don't at least bring any success.
Likes of Nokia and HTC can bring great hardware innovations to their own devices, while HTC has already said they can't bring the HTC One camera to WP8 because of camera kernel restrictions. Nokia in a other hand gets it's first change to bring actual PureView SENSOR to Windows Phone with the new Qualcomm 600 and 800 series processors. Something it was able to do with Symbian 18 months ago already by doing whatever it wanted sticking extra GPU into to 808 PureView and playing with the camera kernel as it pleased.

I don't think it's defensive. WP is getting it and I still think 1080p on a 5" screen is a worthless feature that will just require bigger batteries and more powerful gpus without providing any perceivable benefit.

1080p phones came out just 5 months ago, at least in the US. I think Asia had them sooner. I've seen several reviews where they state the 1080p screen offers little improvement over 720. It is just a marketing thing. Bigger numbers make the device sound better.

Not sure if I'd like a 5" phone, but I'd definitely take a 4.7" from HTC! I love the builds of HTC phones as opposed to Samsung. I was thinking about the Ativ S mainly for screen size, but it was a bit too much plastic for me once I looked at it for hours, so hopefully they will reinstate the Zenith. There are people who like the "sweet spot" of 4.5"+. I do think with a great ppi, a 5" phone with beautiful blacks and the wonderful fluidity of WP8 would be fabulous to see! :)

That 5 inch or more limitation seems stupid to me. HTC can right now squeeze 1920x1080 pixels into a 4.7 inch screen and by the end if the year they might be able to get it into a 4.5" screen. I would prefer that to a 5" monster

I actually like the fact that they gave it a limit - although I think starting at 4.7 inch would be better. Smaller screens whith that resolution just cost you battery life (which is short) and don´t give you anything (as you can´t see the difference with your eye anyways)
Just recently I saw a comparison of the Galaxy S4 screen and the HTC one screen where they actually used a microscope to show the difference - I mean really??!! who is going to look at his screen with a microscope?! everything above 300ppi is sufficient, more than 400ppi is ridiculous. just my opinion!

I'll be honest: I'll welcome the 1080p as long as it's for recording only. I really don't see the need for a 1080p phone screen. Like many here, I'm a tech geek when it comes to many forms of technology, even smartphones. But in all honesty, I really don't see a vast difference between 720p and 1080p on the same screen, be it 4.3 to 5.1 inch screens. Not trying to troll here, just wanting to say how I feel about the subject.

Besides, who is saying that this spec is for phones only. How about getting into the 7" tablet arena.

Just because the OS is Windows Phone, doesn't mean that Microsoft is thinking about phones over 5", although, they are sure to appear.

A 7" mini tablet with phone ability will put it in a crowd of portable, lightweight media consumption devices. E reader, video player, games, music etc. all at 1080p for best resolution in consumers eyes.

The article also states that the 5" limitation was due to availability of the panels, unless I misread it.

No. Purely marketing BS, and as evidenced here, many fall for it. With their 4MP camera, HTC had the courage to take a stand in the senseless smartphone camera MP race (see anandtech review of the HTC One), but unfortunately nobody did it for smartphone displays.

HTC had originally planned to release a "Zenith" flagship device with a 4.7-inch display and quad-core processor, but the company reportedly canceled their plans as the device would have a lower resolution than its competing Android models

So GDR 3 will support 1080p as well as 5+" displays. It will also support quad-core processors.

Eh... Personally, I think a 4.5 inch screen is more than enough for anyone, unless you're the size of the WWE's Big Show. Not thrilled with the idea of phablets invading the WP platform. I just saw the Galaxy Note II the other day and handled it and pretty much laughed. Other than giants, who needs a phone that ridiculously huge???

Really getting tired of the 5" or better trend. Unless you're 120 years old, I'm sure you can see a 4.5-4.8" screen just fine. Sometimes technology just for the sake of having it (1080p screens) just makes things more complicated.

Ok so I exaggerated a little here but the point is that either way, glasses or pretty good vision, you can see the phone. Otherwise just by a tablet. If people were using smaller phones and could see the screen, I'm pretty sure they can see them on a 4.5-4.8" screen.

What I want is a Droid DNA body with Windows Phone. I held the DNA yesterday and couldn't believe that it had a 5" screen. The device feels really small and my hands which is on the smaller size can still reach all parts of the screen one handed. If that is how HTC plans on delivering a 5" screen i'm all in.
I do think the 5" requirement is rather significant. The HTC One is 4.7" and is superb. I'm not sure I want to see a 5" Nokia device. They aren't the best at making the lightest or thinnest phones.

Does everyone realize that this is quite clearly to supports phablets and smaller tablets?
Here’s what we know: Microsoft wants to extend functionality of Windows to 7 inch tablets. HTC wanted to make a 4.7 inch (lets call it 5) phone but did not due to lack of support for higher resolutions. There is also rumors of an “Xbox” tablet in the works.
Now that all the systems (including the new Xbox) is on a single kernel the developer experience can be converged more and more so that it is truly “code once run everywhere” (at least in terms of Windows devices). My predictions is that Windows Blue will introduce more “WinRT” APIs to BOTH Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 (not necessarily all but definitely more). Perhaps even the ability to Windows Phone 8 apps on Windows 8.
What does this mean for the next generation (half-generation?) of Windows devices? The idea is to allow for middle-sized devices that can run both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps. This way the app store is already filled up and these devices have a strong start.
My guess is that developers (which I am) will be able to target this middle ground devices and have apps running both on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. That means the back-end can be coded once and then we just need to check for the current size and run the appropriate UI code. Similar to how Windows 8 apps behave when snapped. We have already seen this in action with the new Ubuntu platform.
This way when developing apps we could choose to just aim at one of the platforms. The key part will be this: in order to account for usage on phones and computers/large tablets there will be incentive to develop the applications so that they scale up or down to the devices needs. This way developers on either platform become developers on the other. If they want to have a great experience within their app they well need to develop for everything.
For Microsoft this means killing two birds with one stone: get more apps in the marketplace (W8 → WP8 and vice versa) AND provide a consistent unbroken experience for their users.

It's probably not Microsofts partners pushing for 1080p resolution, but Microsoft itself trying to stay current with the rest of the industry. They want Samsung, Nokia, HTC, et al pushing out as many devices as possible.

The support should have come with Windows Phone 8 to begin with. Their own RT tablets don't even support 1080p. Why Nokia tied itself down with a dinosaur company and dinosaur operating system is just ridiculous.So much for a clean break and earnest resurrection from Symbian and the grasps of old business men who know more about handling money than handling technology. It's too much corruption at the executive level, with Elop's strong ties to Microsoft and then his subsequent hire into the CEO position. Do you think all the options were exactly given a fair shake? That the better decision was made? It's like how the US government has no bid contracts with HP, because of corruption and money exchanges and investment holdings from the top. Conflict of Interest. Their whole computer system is proprietary, archaic, and not nimble, versatile, or functional enough. Not to mention it cost up the ass, since its no bid. Your tax dollars going to waste.

I'm thinking the 5" limitation is due to UI scaling issues, although I don't see why they don't give UI scaling over to the OEMs so they can work it out themselves for their particular device. The other possibility is that they enable 3 standard tiles wide for the home screen.

Its funny how people think Microsoft are not moving and doing thing fast enough. It's only been 5 months since wp8 launched and we want the world from MS. Just keep up the support and watch this space.

1080p on a 5" screen on a phone is a waste, its a marketing ploy and nothing more but i see why they need it for marketing. I can understand it on 10" tablets but on a phone? I would like to see better colour reproduction, scratch resistant screens and easier to view in direct sunlight that before any screen res increase.